The Road Warrior’s Last Journey (of ’10-’11)

The Road Warrior has valiantly trekked the northeast, going through two vehicles and goodness knows how many miles. Here, we have his last “Tale from the Road” of the 2010-11:

The Road Warrior Saw It All (UAlbany Athletics)

The ride to Hartford was nice and easy. Took just a little less than 2 hours. We arrived at the Hartford Will Call table with their staff not being able to find our tickets for some time (they apparently spelled my last name incorrectly) and then, despite asking to be placed in the ‘Albany section,’ we ended up in a section with about 80% Stony Brook fans, 15% Vermont fans and 5% Albany fans. We talked to a number of fans who were confused/frustrated by the seating placement. I know there are a lot of logistics to manage, but I’m not sure it should be so difficult to get teams’ fans in generally the same section(s). I think I might order through the UA box office next year. As we walked through the America East fan tent, the 2006-07 AE Championship game was playing on the tv. We hoped that was a good sign.

As the game tipped-off, Bryan Dougher started off on fire, hitting 4 straight three-point shots. After weathering the storm a bit, the Danes snagged a 27-20 lead late in the second half. But instead of extending that lead on a couple possessions, UA let Stony Brook back in and ended up with a 34-34 tie at the half. The Seawolves came out with much more energy and intensity in the second half while the Danes looked a bit flat and tired. Ambrose and Aronhalt were in foul trouble in the second half and were forced to sit on the bench together for about 6 minutes or so. During that time Mike Black was forced to do way too much. It seemed as if the entire team just looked for him to create something on his own and he ended up looking gassed by the time Tim and Logan re-entered just before the 12 minute mark.

Despite the Danes’ lack of offense in the 2nd half, the team kept mainly within 2-3 possessions. A late mini-run made it a 2 point UA deficit with less than 30 seconds. After a John Puk block and a Seawolf offensive rebound, Logan Aronhalt fouled, hoping to stop the clock with about 16 seconds left. It turned out that the shot never hit the rim and the shot clock had only 4 or 5 seconds on it. It was a tough mistake, but not one that I personally can be upset with as I also thought the shot clock had reset. Stony Brook went on to hit their free throws to seal their win.

Outside of Stony Brook shooting 10-19 from beyond the arc, it was really the Seawolves’ defense that hurt the Danes. They played energetic and aggressive defense against our guards and were very handsy. Like too many times this year when officials allowed that kind of play, it really disrupted what the guards were able to do. The Ambrose/Aronhalt/Black combo still scored (48 points combined), but they weren’t able to confidently involve our already offensively-anemic post players. While Devlin put up another impressive 11 point & 12 rebound performance, Puk and Metcalf gave us just 2 points in 38 minutes of combined play at the 5 spot. We had no bench scoring and the 3-headed monster scored nearly 80% of the team’s points. Just not a formula for success.

After watching a closely-played (but poorly officiated) Vermont-Binghamton game, we hit the road and made it back to Albany 2 hours later, already thinking about a promising 2011-12 season.

Thanks again for @fessland for all his great work and even more impressive effort getting to these games. Keep up with him during the baseball season at : http://bravesstateofmind.blogspot.com/